Raithe

Okay, so I've got a maxtor 750 gig harddrive that's suddenly started to act up. As in, it's not always showing up in Bios or Windows, then it will show up, but when you go to click properties it might hang. Or it might actually let you explore it, but then decides to crash out explorer. Then it'll let you schedule a disc check, but the moment you restart the machine it disapears from bios again... I'm guessing it's pretty much toast, but does anyone have any suggestions for how possible it is to access and get things off it?

Well one thing the end-game content of running dailies is good for is building up a nice stash of credits that you can send to your new characters and pick up some of those Character Perks available via your Legacy.. That and easily making sure you have the filthy luchre for your speeders..

Heh, I haven't gotten any character yet to reach the 750 social points you need for the first rank you gain on Social. Hm, one thing I've noticed over the last month is that suddenly you'll get social points for completing bonus elements in missions while you're in a group. I can't remember seeing that 3-4 months ago..

Well, if you're still running on Corellian Run, I've got my assorted toon's there. Republic have Smuggler Dhar and Jedi Knight Ehtiar, whilst Imperial Side is Sith Inquisitor Drayke, Bounty Hunter Khayul, and Sith Warrior Khael.

Apart from the flashpoints and heroics, you can do pretty much everything totally solo. And even then, if you're x levels over, you can do most of the flashpoints and heroics. They've geared it so that you can do each class storyline with no-one along, just for those people like enjoy that. But you can just as easily group up and handle it.

Got my SIth Warrior to 40th.. which meant I could outfit him in some nice mixture of Armour of Savagery / Entropic Assault that I'd stocked up on via warzone commendations earned during the 30's... Currently have to decide whether to do some Taris bonus missions for the companion gear, or just head to Quesh. Hm, although I'll probably take a break and push my Bounty Hunter through Voss and onto Corellia first before I do that.

Sleeping Dogs is fairly good for its type. I mean, none of the single parts are done better then any other game, but the combination works quite well. And it pretty much drips atmosphere, and some of the tension of the hong kong action/thriller story. The fluid fighting is pretty nice, and the environmental aspects are fun and add a certain something. The driving is a touch more arcadey then realistic. Hm, actually it doesn't have any wacky humour thrown in like a lot of open-world types have, but it doesn't get grindy or too grim and gritty. I only had one brief glitch where the cars would suddenly "sink" into the streets and start falling. But a simple restart and that's never cropped up again.

heh. Square Enix has announced it has "extensive plans for DLC for Sleeping Dogs" over the next 6 months. And every piece of dlc they've mentioned.. is purely some weapon or costume to wear. I think I'm getting a little sick of those sorts of dlc being thrown out.

So is there any cunning way, or some setting I'm oblivious to.. that will actually let you play a game that's on steam.. and still let it download stuff in the background? This automatic "pause" to all downloads whenever you play games is kind of annoying...

Well I would be playing Sleeping Dogs.. but it took about 30-40 minutes to install from the disc, then Steam decided to spend another hour downloading further bits of it.. I log in, only to find it doesn't automatically do the hi-res pack and you have to download that seperately.. which is apparently going to take another hour...

Well my Sleeping Dogs arrived, so I shall probably be playing that at some point later in the day...

I'm guessing there'll be some HK influence when you get the HK Droid Factory thing going which is somewhere around then.. if I understand the TSLRCM..

But the Light / Dark items available aren't really that great compared to other elements you pick up during the end-game stuff. I mean, sure some of it's nice fluff, but it's more of a useful aspect when you can pick them up earlier in the game. By the time you get to end-level, there's better stuff available from pvp'ing or operations and the like. It's kind of interesting that a lot of the Imperial "Light" side choices are actually around being honorable and not abusing Imperial troops under your command (or that you're working with). Even if you're approaching it from the angle of being a ruthless bastard who is looking for the long-term benefits to the Empire and your own power base.. you get them as Light side choices rather then dark. Of course, if you listen to Lucas, Light/Dark isn't actually about the choices you make, its about the emotions you're feeling when you make them. I mean, technically, if you were serene and at peace with it all, and not feeling anger and hatred and fear. you could kill a whole buncha folks and not go Dark Side...

Talking of Bio writing.. here's some of the more amusing dialogue (at least, to my mind):

Also, apparently the latest "event" is going live around now? Some sort of Treasure Hunt with the Chevin?

Well it starts out with you being the new guy put into the Republics Elite of the Elite special forces group, otherwise known as Havoc Squad. That's about how far I managed to get into it during the beta trial weekend last year before the game was released. Since I did that then, I've been leaving the Trooper as one of my last toons to play since the game came out. The companion you first get is an officer busted down to nco, who has a chip on his shoulder. He tends to be a ranged tank if I recall. Then you get the cute girl - combat medic type, who used to be an Imperial but defected to the Republic. So there's all those trust issues brought up. The third companion you pick up is that Droid featured in the above video. He being a mean prototype stolen by a group involving one of the Havoc squad defectors, and you manage to restore his original programming.

I do wish they hadn't used Jennifer Hale for both Satele Shan and the Republic Fem-Trooper. Also, it means that Fem-Trooper does come across a bit too much like Fem-Shephard

For the day's weirdness... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPcapo5ZB_o

The fun of insomnia reducing th joys of the day, and then leaving you poking at a few half-healed emotional wounds in the silence of the night.. Joy. And to further increase the fun, one of my harddrives has suddenly disapeared from Windows and Bios.. So I shall have to have a poke and see what's causing that and if the whole drive is trashed or what.

Last few nights haven't been able to get to sleep till going 4-5am. So kind of having a few off-days of not being quite so sharp and aware.

The Smuggler has a good Prologue and Chapter 1, they tie together nicely and hit the theme of rogue and pushes the emotional buttons. Chapter 2 isn't quite as connected but is fairly decent, but Chapter 3 certainly looses it's way. The Bounty Hunter is again, very three seperate parts. Prologue and Chapter 1 being that combination of vengeance-seeking and competion for the Grand Hunt. Then Chapters 2 and 3 take swerves away. Both work, but they don't really feel as connected or hung-together. The Jedi Knight actually seems to connect Chapter 2 and 3 together fairly well, but Chapter 1 is very much a collection of random "find and deal with x on planet y".

That I can certainly agree with to a certain level. Although the Inquisitor tries to push some of the more "force secrets / mysticism" elements as behind the betrayals and wotnot. But yes, it does feel like the expected themes have been switched between the two. Either way, they still seem to come across as some of the better written - at least in regards to coherency between prologue and three chapters.

The Inquisitor seems to fall more into the betrayal/treacherous nature of the Sith, and the Apprentice/Master relationship. Although it tends to slide more into the fallout of those events more then the actual elements themselves. With the Sith Warrior, it certainly turns more towards the "grand orchestration" of plans. Darth Baras' whole "super spy network" does feel like something you'd expect from an Inquisitor more, but I can see how a Warrior can turn towards that. More the working precisely and taking out vital support points rather then just thundering around wildly and causing mass destruction. Edit: Well, to be fair, the Trooper is meant to be special forces type, and thus sneaking isn't quite so out of character.

Dark side does have some fun options at times, but there can be a few "stupid evil" routes. Even with my Sith Warrior who I intend to push Dark gets a bunch of light options because they make more sense (in-game, as it were) for some long term goals or if you're actually wanting the best results for the Empire... Still getting into chapter 2 with my Sith Warrior, but I have to agree with Calax that it has some damn good writing. Moved my Bounty Hunter along to Voss now, and having a pause with my Jedi Knight since I don't want to run Republic Belsavis so soon after having done it on the Imperial side with my BH. Still using my Sith Inquisitor and Smuggler now and then to run dailies and crew missions to gather and craft. Plus the odd spot of high level pvp'ing... The Smuggler storyline has a fairly good feel through the Prologue and Chapter 1 - big emotional payoff when you get your ship, and then later when you manage to deal with the guy who stole it. The Jedi Knight is a big.. wandering over the place. Doesn't quite have the same coherent feel as a lot of the other class storylines. The Bounty Hunter starts with a mix of competition and vengeance at the start, moves onto "proving yourself" to the big boys, and then seems to slide into some pseudo-conspiracy/hunted thriller for chapter 3. I think I have to say the SI and SW have the most enjoyable storylines so far, although I was a little disapointed with the Inquisitor in how unsubtle and non-political / manipulative you got to be. Still, the Inquisitor's attempts to undermine a cult and then grow your own on Nar Shaddaa was certainly interesting.

Yup, No Mars. No aliens. No terraforming. Just Earth. The UK and Australia instead, with the rest of the world being a toxic No-go zone for some reason... Australia being "The Colony" where workers get paid crap and commute to the UK through a "chunnel" that goes through the center of the planet (in 18 minutes no less).